Hovercraft research platform: safe and timely access to challenging field sites

我们要求Hoverguard 700提供一个研究操作平台，允许安全进入具有挑战性的现场。这艘气垫船可以在咸水、淡水、冰、泥和盐沼中使用，并将支持三个研究项目。利特瓦克博士将用这辆车前往圣约翰河的鲟鱼越冬地。寻找和描述这些地点很重要，因为在冬季，鲟鱼的活动和聚集会减少，从而可以准确估计种群数量。目前，利特瓦克博士和他的学生们只能在有足够冰层覆盖的短时间内寻找越冬地点。气垫船扩大了他的研究潜力，并将导致对这些受威胁物种的数量进行更精确的估计。汉密尔顿博士与巴博博士合作，研究潮间带泥滩群落生态学。她的大部分研究集中在片脚类动物Corophium volutator，它的无脊椎捕食者和竞争对手，以及迁徙的半蹼足矶鹬（Calidris pusilla）之间的相互作用。C. volutator是泥滩生态系统的核心，当这些鸟类出现在芬迪湾上游时，它是这些鸟类必不可少的食物资源。在群落生态学和保护环境中，清楚地了解卷烟种群的动态是很重要的。气垫船将使我们能够更全面、更有效地取样泥滩，并到达目前无法到达的泥泞海岸。巴博博士还研究了盐沼，盐沼的特点是生长在经常被潮汐覆盖的土壤上的坚韧、耐盐的草。它们是非常多产的生态系统，具有许多关键的环境功能，例如储存碳，过滤污染，为多种生物提供温床栖息地，以及保护海岸免受海平面上升或风暴活动的影响。在南方气候条件下，盐沼的生态学已经得到了广泛的研究，但在北方气候条件下，特别是在冬季严寒的地区，盐沼的基本生态过程仍有许多未知之处。气垫船平台将提供更多的机会进入这些重要的和相对较少研究的领域。

We are requesting the Hoverguard 700 to provide a research operating platform that allows safe access to challenging field sites. This hovercraft can be used on saltwater, freshwater, ice, mud and in saltmarshes, and will support three research programs. Dr. Litvak will use this vehicle to access overwintering sites of sturgeon in the Saint John River. Finding and describing these sites is important because during winter sturgeons reduce activity and aggregate, allowing for accurate population estimates. Currently, Dr. Litvak and his students are restricted to searching for overwintering sites during a short period when there is sufficient ice cover. The hovercraft expands the potential of his research and will lead to a more precise estimate of the populations of these threatened species. Dr. Hamilton, in collaboration with Dr. Barbeau, studies intertidal mudflat community ecology. Much of her research focuses on interactions between the amphipod Corophium volutator, its invertebrate predators and competitors, and migrating Semipalmated Sandpipers (Calidris pusilla). C. volutator is central to the mudflat ecosystem and is an essential food resource for these birds when they are present in the upper Bay of Fundy. A clear understanding of the dynamics of C. volutator populations is important in both community-ecological and conservation contexts. The Hovercraft will allow us to sample mudflats more completely and efficiently, and to reach muddy shores that are currently inaccessible. Dr. Barbeau also studies salt marshes which are characterized by tough, salt-tolerant grasses which grow on soils that are regularly covered by tidal water. They are very productive ecosystems that serve a number of critical environmental functions, such as storing carbon, filtering pollution, providing nursery habitat to a diversity of organisms, and sheltering coasts from sea level rise or storm activity. The ecology of salt marshes has been extensively studied in southern climates, but in northern climates, particularly in areas with severe, icy winters, there is much that remains unknown about the basic ecological processes at work in the salt marsh. The Hovercraft platform will afford much greater access to these important and relatively poorly-studied areas.